An ancient parish originally in the county of Surrey, Sutton is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as having two churches and about 30 houses. Its location on the London to Brighton turnpike from 1755 led to the opening of coaching inns, spurring its growth as a village. When it was connected to central London by rail in 1847, it began to grow into a town, and it expanded further in the 20th century. It became a municipal borough with Cheam in 1934, and became part of Greater London in 1965.[2]

Archaeological finds in the region date back thousands of years, including the excavation of a Roman villa in Beddington. An implement from the neolithic age was found in Sutton town centre.[5] The Roman road of Stane Street formed part of the northern boundary of the parish.

Sutton was recorded as Sudtone in a charter of Chertsey Abbey believed to date from the late 7th century, when the Manor was granted to the Abbot of Chertsey by Frithwald, Governor of Surrey. Some sources state the name as Suthtone or Sudtana.

The 1086 Domesday Book records Sutton as spanning about 800 acres, and having about 30 houses and 200 people.[6] It states that the Abbot of Chertsey held the manor. In 1538 it was sold to King Henry VIII and granted to Sir Nicholas Carew of Beddington. When Sir Nicholas was sentenced to death, the King seized the manor. Queen Mary restored it to Francis, son of Sir Nicholas. It later became a Crown possession again until King Charles II granted it to the Duke of Portland, who sold it in 1669. It changed hands regularly thereafter.[7]

The road from London to Banstead Downs, through Sutton, was a haven for highwaymen in the 18th century.[11] In 1755, two turnpike roads, which met at Sutton, were built: one from London to Brighton (Brighton Road), the other from Carshalton to Ewell (Cheam Road). The toll bars for the roads were originally located by the Cock Hotel, a coaching inn at the junction. The inn's sign straddled the Brighton road.[12]

The London to Brighton stagecoach began in 1760, and the Cock Hotel was the 9am stop for coaches leaving the city. Regular contact beyond the town brought expansion and sophistication. Small businesses opened up, at first related to travelers and later to provide goods for neighbouring areas.[6] The toll bars moved away from the junction as Sutton expanded, remaining in use until 1882.[7]

The Nightingale pub

Sutton railway station was opened in 1847. Following the arrival of the new, fast link to central London, Sutton's population more than doubled between 1851 and 1861, and the village became a town. New housing was built in the Lind Road area, and called "New Town". A pub built in 1854 on the corner of Lind Road was named the Jenny Lind, after the famous Swedish opera singer Johanna Maria Lind, who was visiting friends in the area in 1847 and enchanted locals with her singing. It has recently been renamed the Nightingale, also after the singer, who was known as the Swedish Nightingale.[6]

In about 1852 a residential school was built alongside the Sutton to Epsom Downs railway near Brighton Road. The building was designed by Edwin Nash and contained administrative, dining, dormitory and teaching areas. Boys were taught manual skills like shoemaking and metal working. Girls were taught such skills as needle work, laundry work, and ironing with a view to making them good servants, wives and mothers. Up to 1856, when large parts of it were destroyed by fire, the boys’ and girls’ sections were on the same site but after 1856 the girls’ were moved into a new building on the other side of the railway in Banstead Road (now called Cotswold Road).[13]

Sutton Water Company was incorporated in 1863, and the provision of water mains allowed houses to be built outside the Thanet Sands area. The Lord of the Manor, Mr Thomas Alcock, sold land for housing, and Sutton's population more than doubled again between 1861 and 1871,[7] spurred by the development of upmarket Benhilton in north Sutton.

The High Street near the top was known as Cock Hill until the 1880s – the shops on the east side were built in 1880, ten years after those on the west side.[14] The grand and decorative London and Provincial Bank building (now home to Barclays Bank) was built overlooking the historic crossroads in 1894. It is four storeys tall and a prominent landmark. There is a series of arches at ground level, and an ornate entrance where the roads meet.[5][8][15]

In 1897 Sutton Masonic Hall was built in Grove Road. Freemasons have met there since its foundation, apart during World War II when the military requisitioned it and it served as a shelter for displaced people.[16][8]

The Sutton Adult School and Institute opened in 1910 in a large Edwardian building in Benhill Avenue. It later became the Thomas Wall Centre,[20] named after the area's benefactor of Wall's sausage and ice cream fame. Thomas Wall's own lack of education led to a desire to encourage learning in others, resulting in the establishment of a trust and the construction of the Institute. The adult school is said to have had the best premises in the UK: by 1915 there were social clubs, a library, clubs for maternity and horticulture, debating and temperance societies, a legal advice committee, bible study and English literature classes, and what was claimed to be the finest public gymnasium in southern England.[21]

In 1950, in order to widen the High Street, the Cock Hotel was demolished. However, the inn sign and its fingerposts survive, overlooking the historic crossroads.[23]

In 1959 a local resident, George Edgar Alcock, started a campaign to preserve a unique avenue of copper beech trees. This campaign led the same year to the formation of the Sutton and Cheam Society, a local amenity group. A plaque commemorating Mr Alcock's life is situated at the junction of Christchurch Park with Brighton Road.[24]

In 1928 the area of the urban district was expanded to include the parish of Cheam, and renamed Sutton and Cheam. The town became a municipal borough in 1934, and the civil parishes were merged in 1949.[9] The municipal borough was abolished in 1965 and its former area became part of the London Borough of Sutton in Greater London.

Sutton is one of several towns located on a narrow bed of Thanet Sands which extends from Croydon in the east, to Epsom in the west. To the south of this belt is chalk of the North Downs, and to the north is clay.[28] The belt of Thanet sands allowed wells to provide clean water, and this attracted settlements from a very early date. The Sutton and Cheam Water Company began operations in 1864, and by 1900 had built 142 miles of mains. The company merged with the East Surrey Water Company in 1996 to form Sutton and East Surrey Water.[29]

Sutton has formed part of Greater London since 1965.[2] "Sutton, Surrey" is often used for addresses in the town, Surrey being the former Postal County (and the historic or traditional county) in which it lies. Royal Mail's Flexible Addressing policy allows this.[30] There is another, much smaller Sutton in Surrey, near Dorking.[31] Sutton mainline railway station is known as "Sutton (Surrey)" by Southern Railway Ltd.[32]

In addition to the St Nicholas church grounds, there are two areas of green space within the town centre, Sutton Green and Manor Park.

Sutton Green is at the northern end of Sutton High Street, near All Saints Church. It is bordered by a row of detached Victorian villas to the west, the High Street to the east and Bushey Road to the south. The green dates from 1810 when it was awarded to the residents of Sutton under the Sutton Common Enclosure Award. Victoria Gardens, a smaller area of green space which once included a pond, lies across the road from Sutton Green.[33]

To the north of Sutton Green are Rose Hill Park East and Rose Hill Park West, situated to the east and west respectively of the main thoroughfare Angel Hill/Rosehill. Rose Hill Park East contains Greenshaw Woods, for which Greenshaw High School is named.

Manor Park lies opposite the police station. It was opened by the Chairman of the then Sutton Urban District Council in 1914, and its fountain was added in 1924-5. A plaque on the pool surround states: "This fountain was presented to the town by Councillor Chas Yates Chairman of Sutton U.D.C.1924-25"[34]

The park is also the site of the Sutton War Memorial, which was unveiled in 1921 by Sir Ralph Forster, a resident whose son had died in the war.[35][36] The memorial, in portland stone, consists of a large ornamental cross on a plinth.[37] 524 men who died in the First World War are commemorated on the memorial. There are also four angels on the plinth overlooking the park.[37]

Sutton War Memorial

The current Manor Park Café opened in October 2010. It is eco-friendly and has a range of environmental features, including its straw-bale construction, giving the building a potential lifespan of over 200 years. It was designed by Amazonails Architectura, and constructed by a mixed team of builders.[38] It was London’s first energy-efficient building to use this construction method.[39]

In the south of Sutton starts Banstead Downs, which extends for around a mile south towards neighbouring Banstead. Banstead Downs is a large Site of Special Scientific Interest, covering 430 acres (170 ha). Banstead Golf Course is on the northern slopes.

Sutton is mainly the product of the railways, which arrived in the town in the mid-19th century. So, although it already existed (as a village with coaching inns) in the horse and carriage era, most of the town's earliest architecture is Victorian.[citation needed]A few buildings date from before the Victorian era. The GeorgianSutton Lodge on Brighton Road is thought to be the oldest fully surviving building in the former parish of Sutton. The lodge was initially the farmhouse of the former Sutton Farm. Later, the farmland around the lodge was sold off for house building.[43] The lodge itself survived and was bought by Sutton Council, for use as a day centre.[44] During its early history it may have served as a hideaway for the future King George IV and his mistresses.[6][45] The building is Grade II listed.[46]

Sutton's Edwardian Police Station

The High Street and the central area housing has a majority of Victorian architecture; Edwardian architecture is also represented, especially among the town's housing stock. Of architectural interest because of its particularly varied style is the Victorian residential quarter east of the high street known as Newtown, where no single developer was in overall charge.[6] The town also features more recent architectural styles from the 1930s (including some art deco and moderne) up to the 21st century.

The most prominent examples of 21st century architecture include the Aspects and Lamborne apartment buildings and the new police station extension. Aspects was created out of a former office building; it was reclad in a terracotta colour and three additional floors were added at the top for penthouses. With a total of eighteen floors, it can be seen from across Sutton. By contrast, the Lamborne was newly built.

In 2003 the extension to Sutton Police Station was completed and officially opened the following year by Commissioner Sir John Stevens. The extension, which is far larger than the original Edwardian listed building to which it is attached, is used by Sutton CID, the criminal justice unit and the borough intelligence unit.[6]

Russettings is a large house built in 1899 on a three-quarters of an acre plot at 25 Worcester Road. It was among the last of a number of similar upper middle-class houses built in the vicinity. It was originally occupied by George Smith and his wife Mary, who was the sister of local benefactor Thomas Wall. Smith had his initials GS put on the façade of the red-brick building, which was designed by Frederick Wheeler in an Arts and Crafts style.

Features include gabled roofs, large chimneys, bay windows, a green copper dome and a porch with a tiled roof and marble floor. With the newly formed London Borough of Sutton in 1965, the house became the Sutton Register Office.[51]

There are three churches in the town centre: Trinity Church and St Nicholas Church on St Nicholas Way and Sutton Baptist Church on Cheam Road.

Other churches in the town include All Saints Church in the north, St Barnabas in the east and Christ Church in the south (all Anglican); and two Roman Catholic churches, Our Lady of the Rosary to the east, and the Church of the Holy Family by Sutton Green. The Salvation Army have a centre in Benhill Avenue. Most recently, Hope Church Sutton was established in November 2015 and meets at Sutton Grammar School.

Sutton Synagogue is located on Cedar Road, south of the town centre.[52]

The Grade II listed Trinity Church is in the Gothic style, with its exterior in Kent ragstone. Its tall, square tower is the most striking architectural feature and makes the building a landmark.[53] Its "crown and lantern" spire is a very unusual feature, shared with two cathedrals — St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh and Newcastle Cathedral.[54]

In contrast to the other two town centre churches, the Baptist Church is relatively modern—it was designed by the architect Nugent Cachemaille-Day (1896-1976) using mainly traditional materials, such as brick and tile, in a style influenced by the Arts and Crafts Movement. Built by Messrs. Pitchers Ltd of Holloway in 1934, the church took little more than half-a-year to build, and its notable design aroused interest not only locally, but also in church and architectural circles nationwide.[56]

The church is noted within the borough for its contemporary brick design with long walls and concave sweeps in the moderne style. The windows are in simple clean lines, in a simplified Gothic style. The interior has much exposed brickwork and sweeping pointed arches, which are highlighted by the directions in which the bricks are laid.[57]

The Grade II listed St Nicholas Church[58] is the oldest of the three town centre churches, and is surrounded by a small ancient graveyard, which is wooded. It is in ecumenical partnership with other denominations and in a Team Ministry with other Anglican churches.

Many of Sutton's notable historic residents are buried in the churchyard. These include Mr Horward Orme, the final owner of the manor house, and 185 orphans from the Metropolitan District School. The orphans' graves are marked by a memorial put up by the church's Sunday school children in 1921. A large World War II bomb landed on the churchyard in 1940. It caused the destruction of several graves, but the church building itself remained intact.[14]

Just to the north of Sutton town centre at the foot of Angel Hill in All Saints Road is All Saints Church, Benhilton. Its large size and prominent location make it a local landmark. Its parish was created in 1863, and the foundation stone of the Grade II* listed building was laid in the same year, designed by Samuel Sanders Teulon in the Gothic Revival style. The then lord of the manor, Thomas Alcock, gave £18,000 towards the building, plus the land for the church, the vicarage and a school. The church was conceived as an amenity for an estate of upper class Victorian housing which Alcock was developing on the land to the east.[59].

There is a historic churchyard around the church, which includes several significant tombs. It is wooded, including yew trees beside the path to the north porch.[60]

English Heritage describe the church as "a very fine building in the decorated style of the early 14th century".[61]

To the east of the town centre is St Barnabas Church, which was built between 1882 and 1884 by architects R H Carpenter and Benjamin Ingelow. Its purpose was to serve the Newtown area of Sutton, which was developed in the second half of the 19th century.

To the south of the town centre in Christchurch Park sits Christ Church, Sutton. It was built in 1888 by architects Newman & Jacques. Additions were made c. 1910 to 1912 by J D Round.[64]

The church was built as part of the 19th century expansion of the town. With the growing population to the south of the parish church of St Nicholas in the town centre, the need was recognised for the people living in the south to have a more local church. The building was sited among the then lavender fields east of Brighton Road. The church has the largest auditorium in Sutton, and comprises a nave of five bays, a chancel, apse, north and south aisles, chapel, narthex and vestries.[65]

To the east of the town centre, in St Barnabas Road, is the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary. It was built in 1892 and consecrated that year by Monsignor Patterson. It was enlarged in 1912, and in 1932 the church's current altar, dedicated to the Rosary, was consecrated by the then Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark, Peter Amigo.[66]

The Church of the Holy Family, though closer to the town centre, is more recent, starting as Holy Family Church Hall in the 1960s. The current church was built in 1988, two years after being given its own parish.[67]

There is a large town centre mosaic measuring 9 metres (30 ft) high and 5 metres (16 ft) wide covering the whole of a three storey wall in the town square near the Waterstone's bookshop. One of the largest examples of wall art in Britain, it was commissioned by the London Borough of Sutton to celebrate the borough's heritage.
[69] Created by Drostle and Turner, the mosaic was made from vitreous ceramic tesserae (small tiles made of glass and clay), and put in place in 1994.[6]

It was designed by Rob Turner, and shows several aspects of Sutton's heritage and local history. The centre-piece is the depiction of Henry VIII's palace at Nonsuch.[70]

There is a large mural in Wellesley Road, about a hundred yards south of the railway station. It was created by the street artist, Eva Mena, who is from Bilbao, Spain and a leading practitioner in the urban art movement. The mural dates from 2008,[71] and was completed in three days.[72]

It was commissioned by the owner of a cleaning firm keen to promote local art, and depicts an image of Erykah Badu, the American singer-songwriter. The painting covers the entire side wall of Indepth House, a small office building occupied by the firm.

The twin towns mural is a set of seven individual paintings inset within seven mock window frames on the side of a Victorian commercial building at the junction of the High Street with Sutton Court Road. The paintings depict scenes of the London Borough of Sutton and its four European twins:[73]Gagny, a suburb of Paris; Gladsaxe in Copenhagen; Minden in Germany; and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in Berlin.

The paintings were designed and painted on to plywood by public artists, Gary Drostle and Rob Turner and were unveiled in 1993 on the 25th anniversary of Sutton's twinning with Wilmersdorf. The five twins are each painted with their heraldic shield above images of their key features. Each twin also has its own plant to symbolise environmental awareness; for Sutton this is a beech tree, from which Carshalton Beeches in the borough gets its name.[74][75]

The Millennium Dialarmillary was dedicated to the town in the year 2000 by the Rotary Club. It is in the form of an historical timepiece, and it serves three purposes: first, to tell the time; secondly, to commemorate time through various inscriptions including the Rotary motto "Service Above Self" and distances to nearby areas such as Kingston upon Thames; and thirdly, to commemorate the work which the Rotary Club has done.[76]

The armillary is a popular feature of the town, and it continues to provide a focus for the town centre.[77] It will remain as a permanent memorial, marking not just the new millennium but also the central part that the Rotary has played in the welfare of Sutton since 1923.

It was originally installed in the former "Millennium Garden", but was slightly re-positioned in 2011 to the edge of the central square, in front of the Waterstones bookshop.

The Messenger statue is a sculpture in bronze with very dark patination completed by David Wynne, OBE in 1981 of a large horse and rider. The horse, with a slightly raised left leg, looks towards the railway station. The rider, seated bareback, raises his left hand in the air above his head and his right hand to his mouth, as if calling. It is fully life-size and mounted on a 7-foot plinth of marble and granite slabs. The total height is 150 inches.[78]

The statue was commissioned by the then Business Press International Ltd, and upkeep of the work now falls to Reed Business Information, who occupy Quadrant House.[78] It was a major commission for the sculptor, which took four years from his first idea and inspiration, through to roughing out, refining and foundry to the final unveiling and installation. The company wanted him to illustrate its fundamental business, communication, but to convey the idea of it, rather than simply represent it in a completely obvious way.[79] The statue is located by the main entrance to Quadrant House, adjacent to Sutton station.

Transpose 2002 is a sculpture by Michael Dan Archer, located at the junction of Carshalton Road and Langley Park Road, about 250 yards from the town's historic central crossroads. It is 7 metres (23 feet) in height, 1.5 metres (5 feet) in width and 1.5 metres in depth, and made of Chinese granite and stainless steel. It is composed of a steel blade-like structure next to a granite form. The blade contains a grid allowing the sun to shine through on to the granite.[80][81]

The sculpture was commissioned jointly by Chartwell Land, B&Q and the London Borough of Sutton.[82][83] As its name suggests, it dates from 2002. Archer says his sculptures "primarily invoke the massiveness and physicality of stone and its relationship to architecture, humanity and landscape".[84][85] The design, location and dimensions of Transpose 2002 all combine to make it a significant landmark for those entering Sutton town centre from an easterly direction along Carshalton Road.

Sutton Library is situated close to the top of the town, near St Nicholas Church, and is part of a complex which contains the Civic Offices and Sutton College. It is the largest library in the borough. Opened in 1975, it was extensively refurbished in 2004 to meet changing customer needs. It was the first public library to appoint a library writer-in-residence; the first to establish a CD and video lending library; and the first to offer a full public library service on Sundays. The library is arranged over four storeys, and the lending and reference facilities extend to a reader's lounge; café and shop; IT facilities; opportunities to listen to music; and a children's library themed around the world's environments.[86]

Art exhibitions are held in the library's Europa Gallery.

Wall art, Manor Place, Sutton

Literature

Sutton is referred to in two rhymes. The original dates back to the 18th century, referring to the time when sheep were grazed there. The other rhyme was a revision of the original in the Victorian era. The rhymes are:[87]

The Sutton Life Centre situated in Alcorn Close, just off Sutton Common Road, is an £8 million facility designed to improve life chances for younger people and encourage good citizenship. Aiming to encourage community engagement and involvement, the centre was opened on 27 October 2010 by the then Deputy Prime MinisterNick Clegg.[88]

The centre's key feature – The Lifezone – is a virtual street, a room with giant projection screens on all walls using film-set technology. It aims to provide an "immersive learning environment" through the use of surround sound, evocative lighting and interactive features. Using these media, pupils are shown real-life scenes from Sutton's streets to teach them about citizenship, personal safety and the environment.[89][90][91]

The Secombe Theatre[92] (named after Sir Harry Secombe) was in Cheam Road, adjacent to the Holiday Inn Hotel. The theatre was opened by Sir Harry, who lived in Sutton for over 30 years.[93] The theatre was created in 1984 out of a former Christian Science church building dating from 1937.[94] The theatre was operated together with the Charles Cryer Studio Theatre in Carshalton, formerly by the London Borough of Sutton.[95]
In 2014 Sutton Council requested bids to take over the running of the theatres, and in January 2015 the bid by the new "Sutton Theatres Trust" was given approval by the council's environment and neighbourhood committee to take over the theatres.[96] In August 2016 the Trust went into administration and the theatre closed permanently.[97]

Cinema

The former Granada Cinema opened in 1934 as the Plaza Theatre in Carshalton Road, where Sutton Park House now stands.[98] The ten-screen Empire Cinema, opened in 1991 opposite the St. Nicholas shopping centre.

The Rolling Stones were first spotted at the Red Lion public house (now the Winning Post) in Sutton High Street. The band played several early gigs there in 1963, and, during one, the audience included impresario/music manager Giorgio Gomelsky, who spotted the band and signed them up for a residency at Richmond's Crawdaddy Club, months before they made the charts.[103][104][105]
It was also at the pub that Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman, on 23 January 1963, became permanent members of the band:[106]

“

January 23, 1963: Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman become permanent members of the Rolling Stones with this day's gig at the Red Lion Pub in Sutton, Surrey.

”

In 2011, the Winning Post was added to a list of buildings and structures of local significance.[107][108]

Sutton is one of the eleven major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan[109] in a borough that benefits from very low crime by London standards. The town contains a major retail district, centred on Sutton High Street.

Sutton has over 6,800 businesses, an increase of about 19% since 1994.[110] 863 new companies were formed in Sutton in 2012, the highest number since records began.[111] Most of these were small or medium-sized, but several large businesses, such as Reed Business Information, the media publishing company, are also present and have substantial office space in the town: Reed occupies the large Quadrant House office building next to the station, and is a major local employer.

G4S is another significant company in the town, with offices in the large Sutton Park House building opposite Manor Park. Crown Agents Ltd, the international development company, is headquartered in St Nicholas House in the town centre.[112] Another important business locally is subseaengineering company Subsea 7.

There is a town centre manager, who works in partnership with local businesses, the police and transport providers to promote the centre and its economic development. The manager acts as the focal point for a range of initiatives funded by the Council and other partners. "Opportunity Sutton"[113] and Sutton Chamber of Commerce[114] also play a part in the local economy.

The Royal Marsden Hospital has a longstanding presence in Sutton, on a site at the southern end of the town acquired in 1962. The Institute of Cancer Research is located next to the hospital, and in 2012 the Institute's Centre for Molecular Pathology opened.[115] The Institute was named the country's leading university, ahead of Oxford and Cambridge, in recognition of its contribution to society.

In 2014, The Royal Marsden Hospital, the Institute of Cancer Research and the co-located St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust set out a vision for a "world class" life sciences cluster ("Sutton for Life") on the site, focusing on the provision of enhanced facilities for drug discovery.[116] The then Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, visited the facility that year, and lent his support to the plans for what will be the world's second biggest cancer research campus.[117]

The new headquarters of Subsea 7

In February 2016, further plans for the site were released: the "London Cancer Hub", a partnership between the Institute of Cancer Research, the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and the London Borough of Sutton, will bring together 10,000 scientists, and clinical and support staff and provide space for biotech and pharma companies to carry our research and development. The aim is to increase the number of clinical trials and innovative drugs, working in partnership with industry. It is expected to do for South London what Tech City has done for East London.[118][119][120][121][122]

The London Cancer Hub is also planned to include a new secondary school on the site, which will specialise in the life sciences.[123] Leisure facilities in the form of shops, cafés and hotel space for patients and families are also planned.[119] The Hub is expected to be twice the size - at 265,000 square metres – of the existing research and treatment space. It will facilitate collaboration between different scientific fields. By 2018 the Institute of Cancer Research will develop the first phase of the plans with 20,000 square metres of drug discovery facilities.[124]

In September 2016 Sutton Council's housing, economy and business committee approved a provisional framework of the plans.
It was noted that site’s transformation would attract a total investment of £1 billion over its lifetime.[125]

A number of major building projects are underway or have recently been completed in the town centre:

Sutton Point, at the southern end of the town centre, will include a hotel, apart-hotel, apartments (with a car club), a health club, shops, restaurants and office space. Construction of the £90 million scheme was awarded by the developer CNM to the building firm Ardmore, and is due for completion in December 2018.[126][127]

The Old Gas Works,[128] a major development by LXB Retail Properties at the north end of the High Street, including apartments, a Sainsbury's supermarket, retail units and a landscaped square with fountain[129] was completed in 2016.[130] The scheme represented a £50 million investment in the town.[131]

Subsea 7 has expanded in Sutton, making it the site of its new world headquarters. The firm moved within the town to a new, purpose-built, five-storey, 17,500 square metre office building. Four hundred jobs were created, mainly by relocation, taking the workforce in Sutton to 780.[132] Construction of the £39 million development by Galliford Try started in 2014, and was completed in late 2016.[133]

In September 2015 the Council appointed a design team led by Bilfinger GVA to produce plans covering the next 15 years for the central area of the town. The plans include identifying sites for new housing and commercial space, a possible new primary school and improved transport links, including the introduction in 2020 of trams to Sutton station. The plans require the retention of the "high-quality Victorian, Edwardian and Mock Tudor buildings that reflect the historic core of the town centre"[134]

In June 2016 a masterplan entitled "Sutton 2031: Planning for our Future" was published by the Council. Its plans include new developments, enhanced public space and improvements to transport. It will include:

"A range of immediate High Street projects"

"Transforming the St Nicholas Centre"

"Creating a new south London destination with culture, leisure and restaurant activity"

In March 2017 it was announced that Sutton town centre had been designated one of the first ten Heritage Action Zones by Historic England. Gaining this status will unlock resources to enhance the historic environment, including the conservation area, with the aim of encouraging economic growth. Heritage will be made a central consideration for new developments in the area so as to retain the town's distinct architectural nature.[136][137][138]

Retailing has been a major part of the Sutton economy since the Victorian era. The oldest retail business currently operating in Sutton, Pearson Cycles, dates from the 1860s – it was originally a blacksmith shop, but in the 1890s changed to bicycle making and repair. The Pearsons have run the cycle business from the same High Street location ever since.[139] It has been recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest bicycle shop in the world.[140]

Retail environment

Sutton is London's sixth most important retail centre, and attracts shoppers from a wide area.[141] Sutton High Street runs for nearly a mile from Sutton Green to Sutton station, and hosts many of the country's main high street names.[142]

It is often the chosen location for new retail ventures, for example the Sutton branch of the Waterstones bookshop chain being the first to have a café installed.[143]

Shopping centres

There are two covered shopping centres, both situated near the middle of the retail area. The larger of these is the St. Nicholas Centre with three levels, and five levels for Debenhams, the anchor store. Times Square is the smaller one - it opened in 1985, and was re-launched in 2017 following a refit.[144] The refit was assessed as being of high quality and making a significant contribution to the regeneration of the town centre."[145]

Multicoloured High Street facades

Restaurants and bars

Sutton also has a number of restaurants, patisseries, coffee bars, gastropubs and bars, including the country's first branch of All Bar One.[146] The central area is pedestrianised, and the extra space encourages the provision of pavement seating.

A "pop-up" market is held every month at the northern end of Sutton High Street. It is part of a programme to support local entrepreneurs starting their own business. Products and crafts on sale include natural cosmetics, jewellery and handmade clothing.[151]

The Green Wall on Sutton High St

Street performance

The high street and town square host street performances, including music, arts and theatre. Markets are held from time to time, including French, Italian and Continental markets, as well as arts and crafts fairs.[152][153]

In August and September the high street hosts the outdoor "Sunset Cinema," where films are shown in the evening to an audience seated in deckchairs.[154][155] The scheme, the only one of its kind in London, aims to encourage greater use of local restaurants and bars.[156] The High Street has hosted a Country music festival with live music and dancing for the last two summers.[157] A temporary mini-golf course is set up during August.[158]

Green wall

There is a Green Wall or "vertical garden" in the shopping area, designed both for aesthetics and to improve air quality and biodiversity. It provides additional breeding and nesting options in the vicinity and safeguards local flora and fauna. It helps to offset the carbon footprint, lowers the heat island effect of the urban area and reduces smog from traffic fumes. The green wall covers the façade of a large High Street store, and is in bloom all year round.[159][160][161]

West Sutton and Sutton Common stations are both on the Thameslink lines to Wimbledon and on to central London direct. Being on the Thameslink line, they continue on to stations both within and the other side of London.

Road traffic is diverted away from a largely pedestrianised town centre, and there are many designated cycle routes in Sutton, along with links to neighbouring towns.[164] There are three main car parks in the town centre and a car club.[165]

In 2014 a consultation was held into options for the route of a proposed Tramlink extension from Wimbledon to Sutton.[166][167]

Sutton is the principal town in the London Borough of Sutton, a top performing borough for education. The town is home to a significant number of the borough's schools, including one of its boys' grammar schools, its boys' preparatory school and its girls' private secondary school.

In 2013 Sutton's GCSE performance was second across all boroughs in England.[175] In 2011 Sutton was the top performing borough in England.[176] For more information about performance see London Borough of Sutton.

Manor Park (1927). Three-minute amateur film shot in 1927 from Sutton Local Studies and Archive showing various aspects of Sutton town centre, including people at leisure in Manor Park and a policeman directing traffic at the main crossroads.

Sutton Carnival Procession (1933). Three-minute film from 1933 covering spectators in Mulgrave Road near Sutton railway station and a carnival procession, which includes a fire engine and several floats from a range of organisations and businesses.

1.
London Borough of Sutton
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The London Borough of Sutton is a London borough in South West London, England and forms part of Outer London. It covers an area of 43 km2 and is the 80th largest local authority in England by population and it is one of the southernmost boroughs of London. It is south of the London Borough of Merton, west of the London Borough of Croydon, the local authority is Sutton London Borough Council. Its principal town is the eponymous Sutton, the Borough has some of the schools with the best results in the country. A Trust for London and New Policy Institute report noted that Sutton had the highest rate in London of pupils achieving 5 A* – C GCSEs, in December 2014 Sutton was described by a senior Government official as the most normal place in Britain. In connection with this, the leader of Sutton Council described the borough as quietly brilliant, low levels of recorded crime are a feature of the borough, being among the lowest in London. An Ipsos MORI poll in 2014 found that 97% of residents felt safe in the borough during the day, and 71% felt safe at night, a higher figure than in 2011. The 2014 Family Hotspots Report, on the best places in England and Wales for families to live, the areas were identified as postcodes SM1, SM2 and SM3. A Rightmove study in 2015 found that Sutton was the fourth happiest borough in which to live out of 33 in London and it achieved the same placing in the 2016 survey. In 2014, a survey by eMoov found Sutton to be the easiest place in the country in which to sell a property, the London Borough of Sutton was one of the four vanguard areas selected in 2010 for the Big Society initiative. The borough includes the areas, The London Borough of Sutton was once made up of rural villages, the village feel persists, and places in the borough such as Carshalton, Cheam and Belmont continue to be referred to as villages. The historic development of the borough is reflected in the number of areas designated as conservation areas and as areas of special local character. Descriptions of a selection of the cultural institutions and attractions are set out below. There were frequent productions at The Charles Cryer Studio Theatre, which is situated on the High Street in Carshalton Village and it was opened by His Royal Highness Prince Edward in 1991. As well as drama and musicals, productions included comedy and dance, with material ranging from Shakespeare to Chekov to panto and childrens favourites, the theatres aim was to balance popularity with quality. The theatre also served as a venue for local bands. The theatre is named after the man who led the campaign to open the Secombe Theatre, Sutton, in August 2016 Sutton Theatres Trust, which owned the theatre, went into administration and it closed permanently. The Secombe Theatre is in Cheam Road, adjacent to the Holiday Inn Hotel, the theatre was opened by Sir Harry, who lived in Sutton for over 30 years of his life

2.
Manor Park, Sutton
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Manor Park is a public park in the town of Sutton in Greater London. It was created in 1914 on a site in the town centre and its grounds include the Sutton War Memorial, which was added in 1921. It is bounded by Throwley Way to the west, Carshalton Road to the south, Manor Park Road to the east, Sutton High Street runs parallel to Throwley Way, fifty yards to the west. In 2010 its new café of straw-bale construction was Londons first environmentally friendly building to use this building method, Manor Park occupies the former grounds of four large houses, three in Carshalton Road, and one in Manor Park Road, which was called Manor Park House. This house passed to the then Sutton Urban District Council in 1914, who created the park from its grounds, the changeover was achieved without major alteration. The park was opened by the Chairman of the SUDC on 25 May 1914 and it was progressively expanded in size following the acquisition of further houses in 1921,1924 and 1931. Manor park is also the site of the Sutton War Memorial, in 1921 the War Memorial Committee bought two houses adjacent to the park, and erected the war memorial in their place. Responsibility for maintaining the grounds of the memorial was taken on by the Council, the memorial was unveiled at a service in June 1921 by Sir Ralph Forster, a wealthy local resident whose son died in the war. It was designed by the architect JSW Burmester who lived in Grange Road, the memorial, in portland stone, consists of a large ornamental cross on a plinth. 524 men who died in the First World War are commemorated on the memorial. As well as the plaques containing names of the fallen, it has four panels, one containing an inscription, there are also four angels on the plinth overlooking the park. The inscription reads, The parks iconic water fountain was installed in 1924 to 1925 and this was one of a series of donations made to the park from people in the locality. A plaque on the pool surround gives recognition to this donation, the current Manor Park Café opened in October 2010, replacing an earlier one. This eco-friendly, thirty-seat café has a range of environmental features and it was built using UK produced straw-bales and natural sustainable materials, a type of construction which means that the building could last for longer than 200 years. It was designed by Amazonails Architectura designers, and constructed by a team of builders. It was London’s first energy-efficient building to use this method of construction, media related to Manor Park, Sutton at Wikimedia Commons Manor Park. Media related to Parks in the London Borough of Sutton at Wikimedia Commons

3.
Sutton High Street
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Sutton High Street is a high street running north-south through the town of Sutton in the London Borough of Sutton. The High Street area constitutes the sixth most important retail centre in London and it is pedestrianised for most of its length, and a conservation area runs down a three hundred yard section. There are three examples of art in the street, and parks at either end of it. The section of road that is now Sutton High Street dates from the Middle Ages, by the 18th century Brightons popularity as a coastal resort was growing, and the route was well used, but not yet regularly maintained. This was put right in 1755 when the enacting of legislation provided a means for the roads better maintenance. This, combined with its intersection with the east-west Carshalton/Cheam Road, by the beginning of the 19th century Sutton had become a fully-fledged village, and the road was dotted with a number of houses, pubs and shops from Sutton Green southwards up to the Cock crossroads. The road was used frequently by the Prince Regent to access Sutton Lodge on Brighton Road, in 1801 the population of the town stood at 579, at that point lower than the other settlements in the borough. However, by 1861 it had enough to make Sutton the largest settlement in the borough. Their position on the London to Brighton turnpike provided the two large coaching inns, the Cock and the Greyhound, with trade serving coaches travelling through the village. The Cock Hotels sign straddled the Brighton road, and its proprietor was the champion pugilist, the building was demolished in 1898, shortly after a new Cock Hotel had been constructed on a directly adjacent site to the north. Its name originated from the horses needed along this part of the road. Twenty horse and carts passed up and down this stretch in a day, regular contact beyond the town brought both expansion and sophistication. When the railway arrived, Suttons people had become travellers themselves, the population of Sutton grew and the village turned into a town. The High Street near the top was known as Cock Hill until the 1880s – the shops on the east side were built in 1880, ten years later than those on the west side. A notatable building to appear around this time was the grand and decorative 1894 London and Provincial Bank building and it is four storeys tall and forms a prominent landmark when arriving in the town centre from a westerly direction. There is a series of arches at ground level, and the entrance is on the corner where the two roads meet, rounded in shape and surrounded by an ornate architrave and segmental pediment. By 1900 the High Street had become built up. By the late 1930s the shops had altered, but the buildings remained much the same

4.
Greater London
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London, or Greater London, is a region of England which forms the administrative boundaries of London. It is organised into 33 local government districts, the 32 London boroughs, the Greater London Authority, based in Southwark, is responsible for strategic local government across the region and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The county of Greater London was created on 1 April 1965 through the London Government Act 1963, administratively, Greater London was first established as a sui generis council area under the Greater London Council between 1963 and 1986. The area was re-established as a region in 1994, and the Greater London Authority formed in 2000, the region covers 1,572 km2 and had a population of 8,174,000 at the 2011 census. In 2012, it had the highest GVA per capita in the United Kingdom at £37,232, the Greater London Built-up Area—used in some national statistics—is a measure of the continuous urban area of London, and therefore includes areas outside of the administrative region. The term Greater London has been and still is used to different areas in governance, statistics, history. In terms of ceremonial counties, London is divided into the small City of London, outside the limited boundaries of the City, a variety of arrangements has governed the wider area since 1855, culminating in the creation of the Greater London administrative area in 1965. The Greater London Arterial Road Programme was devised between 1913 and 1916, one of the larger early forms was the Greater London Planning Region, devised in 1927, which occupied 1,856 square miles and included 9 million people. The LCC pressed for an alteration in its boundaries soon after the end of the First World War, noting that within the Metropolitan, a Royal Commission on London Government was set up to consider the issue. The LCC proposed a vast new area for Greater London, with a boundary somewhere between the Metropolitan Police District and the home counties, protests were made at the possibility of including Windsor, Slough and Eton in the authority. The Commission made its report in 1923, rejecting the LCCs scheme, two minority reports favoured change beyond the amalgamation of smaller urban districts, including both smaller borough councils and a central authority for strategic functions. The London Traffic Act 1924 was a result of the Commission, Greater London originally had a two-tier system of local government, with the Greater London Council sharing power with the City of London Corporation and the 32 London Borough councils. The GLC was abolished in 1986 by the Local Government Act 1985 and its functions were devolved to the City Corporation and the London Boroughs, with some functions transferred to central government and joint boards. Greater London was used to form the London region of England in 1994, a referendum held in 1998 established a public will to recreate an upper tier of government to cover the region. The Greater London Authority, London Assembly and the directly elected Mayor of London were created in 2000 by the Greater London Authority Act 1999, in 2000, the outer boundary of the Metropolitan Police District was re-aligned to the Greater London boundary. The 2000 and 2004 mayoral elections were won by Ken Livingstone, the 2008 and 2012 elections were won by Boris Johnson. The 2016 election was won by Sadiq Khan, Greater London continues to include the most closely associated parts of the Greater London Urban Area and their historic buffers. Thus it includes, in five boroughs, significant parts of the Metropolitan Green Belt which protects designated greenfield land in a way to the citys parks

5.
Charing Cross
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Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London. It gives its name to several landmarks, including Charing Cross railway station, Charing Cross is named after the Eleanor cross that stood on the site, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross has been occupied since 1675 by a statue of King Charles I. A loose Victorian replica of the cross, the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, was erected a short distance to the east outside the railway station. Until 1931, Charing Cross referred to the part of Whitehall between Great Scotland Yard and Trafalgar Square, at least one property retains a Charing Cross postal address, Drummonds Bank, on the corner of Whitehall and The Mall, which is designated 49 Charing Cross. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has often been regarded as the centre of London. Erect a rich and stately carved cross, Whereon her statue shall with glory shine, George Peele The Famous Chronicle of King Edward the First The name of the area, Charing, is derived from the Old English word cierring, referring to a bend in the River Thames. Folk etymology suggests the name derives from chère reine — dear queen in French — and this wooden sculpted cross was the work of the medieval sculptor, Alexander of Abingdon. It was destroyed in 1647 on the orders of Parliament during the Civil War, a 70 ft -high stone sculpture in front of Charing Cross railway station is a copy of the original cross. Erected in 1865, it is situated a few hundred yards to the east of the original cross and it was designed by the architect E. M. Barry and carved by Thomas Earp of Lambeth out of Portland stone, Mansfield stone and Aberdeen granite. It is not a replica, being more ornate than the original. A variation on the name appears to be Charygcrouche, near St Martin in the Fields, since 1675 the site of the cross has been occupied by a statue of King Charles I mounted on a horse. The site is recognised by convention as the centre of London for the purpose of indicating distances by road in favour of other measurement points. Charing Cross is marked on maps as a road junction. Since 1 January 1931 this section of road has been designated part of the Whitehall thoroughfare, the cross has given its name to a railway station, a tube station, police station, hospital, a hotel, a theatre, and a music hall. Charing Cross Road the main route from the north was named after the railway station, at some time between 1232 and 1236, the Chapel and Hospital of St Mary Rounceval was founded at Charing. It occupied land at the corner of the modern Whitehall and into the centre of Northumberland Avenue and it was an Augustinian house, tied to a mother house at Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees. The house and lands were seized for the king in 1379, protracted legal action returned some rights to the prior, but in 1414, Henry V suppressed the alien houses

6.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years

7.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

8.
Metropolitan Police Service
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As of March 2016, the Met employed 48,661 full-time personnel. This included 32,125 sworn police officers,9,521 police staff and this number excludes the 3,271 Special Constables, who work part-time and who have the same powers and uniform as their regular colleagues. This makes the Metropolitan Police the largest police force in the United Kingdom by a significant margin, the post of Commissioner was first held jointly by Sir Charles Rowan and Sir Richard Mayne. The post is occupied by the now-outgoing Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe. The Commissioners deputy, the Deputy Commissioner, is currently Craig Mackey, a number of informal names and abbreviations exists for the Metropolitan Police Service, the most common being the Met. In colloquial London, it is referred to as the Old Bill. The Met is also referred to by the metonym Scotland Yard after the location of its headquarters in a road called Great Scotland Yard in Whitehall. The Mets current headquarters is New Scotland Yard, in Victoria, the Metropolitan Police Service, whose officers became affectionately known as bobbies, was founded in 1829 by Robert Peel under the Metropolitan Police Act 1829. In 1839, the Marine Police Force, which had formed in 1798, was amalgamated into the Metropolitan Police. In 1837, it also incorporated with the Bow Street Horse Patrol that had organised in 1805. Since January 2012, the Mayor of London is responsible for the governance of the Metropolitan Police through the Mayors Office for Policing, the mayor is able to appoint someone to act on his behalf, the current office-holder is Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden. The work of MOPAC is scrutinised by the Police and Crime Committee of the London Assembly, the area policed by the Metropolitan Police Service is known as the Metropolitan Police District. In terms of policing, the Met is divided into a number of Borough Operational Command Units. The City of London is a police area and is the responsibility of the separate City of London Police. The British Transport Police are responsible for policing of the network in the United Kingdom. Within London, they are responsible for the policing of the London Underground, Tramlink, The Emirates Air Line. There is also a park police force, the Kew Constabulary, responsible for the Royal Botanic Gardens. Officers also have limited powers in Scotland and Northern Ireland, within the MPD, the Met will take over the investigation of any serious crime from the British Transport Police and Ministry of Defence Police, if it is deemed appropriate

9.
Fire services in the United Kingdom
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The fire services in the United Kingdom operate under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Emergency cover is provided by over fifty fire and rescue services, many FRS were previously known as brigades or county fire services, but almost all now use the standard terminology. They are distinct from and governed by an authority, which is the legislative, public and administrative body. Fire authorities in England and Wales, and therefore fire and rescue services, Scotland and Northern Ireland have centralised fire and rescue services, and so their authorities are effectively committees of the devolved parliaments. The total budget for services in 2014-15 was £2.9 billion. The devolved government in Scotland has an agency, HMFSI Scotland. This Act provided for centralised co-ordination of fire brigades in Great Britain,1947, Fire Services Act 1947 This Act transferred the functions of the National Fire Service to local authorities. Now repealed entirely in England and Wales by Schedule 2 of the Fire,1959, Fire Services Act 1959 This Act amended the 1947 Act, it dealt with pensions, staffing arrangements and provision of services by other authorities. It was repealed in England and Wales along with the 1947 Act,1999, Greater London Authority Act 1999 This act was necessary to allow for the formation of the Greater London Authority and in turn the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2002, there was a series of fire strikes. In December 2002, the Independent Review of the Fire Service was published with the action still ongoing. Bains report ultimately led to a change in the relating to firefighting. 2002, Independent Review of the Fire Service published 2004, Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, generally only applying to England and it came into force on 1 October 2006. The DfCLG has published a set of guides for non-domestic premises,2006, The Government of Wales Act 2006 gave the National Assembly for Wales powers to pass laws on Fire, promotion of fire safety otherwise than by prohibition or regulation. But does not prevent future legislation being passed by the UK government which applies to two or more constituent countries, There are further plans to modernise the fire service according to the Local Government Association. The fire service in England and Wales is scrutinised by a House of Commons select committee, in June 2006, the fire and rescue service select committee, under the auspices of the Communities and Local Government Committee, published its latest report. For example, where FRSs were historically inspected by HMFSI, much of this work is now carried out by the National Audit Office, Fire Control On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project. Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association, also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association

10.
London Fire Brigade
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The London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for London. It was formed by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act of 1865 under the leadership of superintendent Eyre Massey Shaw. Dany Cotton is the Commissioner for Fire and Emergency Planning, which includes the position of Chief Fire Officer, statutory responsibility for the running of the brigade lies with the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority. In 2013/14 the LFB handled 171,067999 emergency calls, of the calls it actually mobilised to,20,934 were fires, including 10,992 that were of a serious nature, making it one of the busiest fire brigades in the world. In the same 12-month period, it received 3,172 hoax calls, the highest number of any UK fire service, in 2015/16 the LFB received 171,488 emergency calls. These consisted of,20,773 fires,30,066 special service callouts and it also conducts emergency planning and performs fire safety inspections and education. He introduced a uniform that, for the first time, included personal protection from the hazards of firefighting. With 80 firefighters and 13 fire stations, the unit was still a private enterprise, funded by the insurance companies, in 1904 it was renamed as the London Fire Brigade. The LFB moved into a new headquarters built by Higgs and Hill on the Albert Embankment in Lambeth in 1937, during the Second World War the countrys brigades were amalgamated into a single National Fire Service. The separate London Fire Brigade for the County of London was re-established in 1948, in 1986 the Greater London Council was disbanded and a new statutory authority, the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority, was formed to take responsibility for the LFB. The LFCDA was replaced in 2000 by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, at the same time, the Greater London Authority was established to administer the LFEPA and coordinate emergency planning for London. Consisting of the Mayor of London and other elected members, the GLA also takes responsibility for the Metropolitan Police Authority, Transport for London, in 2007 the LFB vacated its Lambeth headquarters and moved to a site in Union Street, Southwark. In the same year, the Department for Communities and Local Government announced that LFB Commissioner Ken Knight had been appointed as the first Chief Fire, Knight was succeeded as Commissioner at that time by Ron Dobson, who served for almost ten years. Dany Cotton took over in 2017, becoming the brigades first female commissioner, dany Cotton is the current commissioner, having taken up the role on 1 January 2017. She holds the Queens Fire Service Medal, frank Jackson, CBE1938 to 1941, Cdr. Sir Aylmer Firebrace, CBE1933 to 1938, Maj. Cyril Morris 1918 to 1933, Arthur Reginald Dyer 1909 to 1918, sir Sampson Sladen 1903 to 1909, RAdm. James de Courcy Hamilton 1896 to 1903, Capt, lionel de Latour Wells 1891 to 1896, James Sexton Simmonds 1861 to 1891, Capt. Both divisions were divided into three districts, each under a Superintendent with his headquarters at a superintendent station, the superintendent stations themselves were commanded by District Officers, with the other stations under Station Officers

11.
Emergency medical services in the United Kingdom
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Emergency care including ambulance and emergency department treatment is free to everyone, regardless of immigration or visitor status. The NHS commissions most emergency services through the 14 NHS organisations with ambulance responsibility across the UK. As with other services, the public normally access emergency medical services through one of the valid emergency telephone numbers. This led to the formation of predominantly county based ambulance services, which gradually merged up and changed responsibilities until 2006, when there were 31 NHS ambulance trusts in England. Following further changes as part of the NHS foundation trust pathway, the commissioners in each region are responsible for contracting with a suitable organisation to provide ambulance services within their geographical territory. The primary contract for each area is held by a public NHS body, of which there are 11 in England. The service was operated before reorganisation in 1974 by the St Andrews’ Ambulance Association under contract to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service was established in 1995 by parliamentary order, and serves the whole of Northern Ireland. The Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust was established on 1 April 1998, there is a large market for private and voluntary ambulance services, with the sector being worth £800m to the UK economy in 2012. This places the voluntary providers in direct competition with private services, expenditure on private ambulances in England increased from £37m in 2011−12 to £67. 5m in 2013/4, rising in London from £796,000 to more than £8. 8m. In 2014−15, these 10 ambulance services spent £57.6 million on 333,329 callouts of private or voluntary services - an increase of 156% since 2010−11, in 2013, the CQC found 97% of private ambulance services to be providing good care. These private, registered services are represented by the Independent Ambulance Association, there are also a number of unregistered services operating, who do not provide ambulance transport, but only provide response on an event site. These firms are not regulated, and are not subject to the checks as the registered providers, although they may operate similar vehicles. There are a number of ambulance providers, sometimes known as Voluntary Aid Services or Voluntary Aid Societies, with the main ones being the British Red Cross. The history of the ambulance services pre-dates any government organised service. As they are in competition for work with the private ambulance providers. Voluntary organisations have also provided cover for the public when unionised NHS ambulance trust staff have taken industrial action, there are a number of smaller voluntary ambulance organisations, fulfilling specific purposes, such as Hatzola who provide emergency medical services to the orthodox Jewish community in some cities. These have however run into difficulties due to use of vehicles not legally recognised as ambulances, all emergency medical services in the UK are subject to a range of legal and regulatory requirements, and in many cases are also monitored for performance. This framework is largely statutory in nature, being mandated by government through a range of primary and secondary legislation and this requires all providers to register, to meet certain standards of quality, and to submit to inspection of those standards

12.
London Ambulance Service
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It is one of the busiest ambulance services in the world, and the busiest in the United Kingdom, providing care to more than 8.6 million people, who live and work in London. The service is currently under the leadership of chief executive Dr Fionna Moore MBE, the service employ around 4,500 staff. In exceptional cases, or where the service deems in necessary, specialist teams can be deployed from within the service, such as the Hazardous Area Response Team and these teams are specially trained and equipped to deal with incidents such as working at height or in confined spaces. It is one of 10 ambulance trusts in England providing emergency medical services, there is no charge to patients for use of the service, as every person in England has the right to the attendance of an ambulance in an emergency. The LAS responded to over 1.8 million calls for assistance, incidents rose by 20,000 in 2015/16, putting more pressure on the service. All 999 calls from the public are answered at the Emergency Operations Centre in Waterloo, to assist, the services command and control system is linked electronically with the equivalent system for Londons Metropolitan Police. This means that police updates regarding specific jobs will be updated directly on the computer-aided dispatch log, to be viewed by the EOC, the first became operational at The South Eastern Fever Hospital, Deptford, in October 1883. In all, six hospitals operated horse-drawn land ambulances, putting almost the whole of London within three miles of one of them, each ambulance station included accommodation for a married superintendent and around 20 drivers, horse keepers and attendants, nurses, laundry staff and domestic cleaners. At Deptford, in order to transfer patients between the hospitals at Joyce Green and Long Reach near Gravesend, a horse-drawn ambulance tramway was constructed in 1897, in 1902, the MAB introduced a steam driven ambulance and in 1904, their first motor ambulance. The last horse-drawn ambulances were used on 14 September 1912, although the MAB was legally supposed to be transporting only infectious patients, it increasingly also carried accident victims and emergency medical cases. Also in 1915, the MAB Ambulance Section were the first public body to women drivers. By July 1916 the London County Council Ambulance Corps was staffed entirely by women, the LCC also took control of the River Ambulance Service, but it was disbanded in 1932. During World War II, the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service was operated by over 10,000 auxiliaries, mainly women and they ran services from 139 Auxiliary Stations across London. A plaque at one of the last to close, Station 39 in Weymouth Mews, near Portland Place, in 1948 the National Health Service Act made it a requirement for ambulances to be available for anyone who needed them. On 1 April 1996, the LAS left the control of the South West Thames Regional Health Authority, as an NHS Trust, the LAS has a Trust Board consisting of 12 members. The board includes, a chairman, five of the Service’s executive directors. Special events in London are co-ordinated from the Services event control room, also located in east London, during mass casualty incidents, the command structure works on three levels, gold, silver and bronze. Silver control, tactical command, from a point in the vicinity of the incident, Bronze control

Frontage onto Strand/Charing Cross of Northumberland House in 1752 by Canaletto. The statue of Charles I can be seen to the right of the painting. To the left can be seen the famous Golden Cross Inn, with signboard outside.

Old English (Ænglisc, Anglisc, Englisc), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest historical form of the English language, …

A detail of the first page of the Beowulf manuscript, showing the words "ofer hron rade", translated as "over the whale's road (sea)". It is an example of an Old English stylistic device, the kenning.

Alfred the Great statue in Winchester, Hampshire. The 9th-century English King proposed that primary education be taught in English, with those wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in Latin.